1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adapter for endoscope, a processor for endoscope and an endoscope system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an endoscope system has been widely used in a medical field and an industrial field. The endoscope system makes it possible to perform observation, image recording and the like of an endoscopy target site by inserting an endoscope insertion portion of the endoscope system into an inside of a patient's body cavity or into an inside of an endoscopy object.
When a detachable endoscope is connected to a processor, the processor generates a driving signal for driving an image pickup device provided at a distal end portion of the endoscope insertion portion, performs image processing of an image signal, which is a video signal from the image pickup device, and displays an endoscopic image on a monitor. At that time, the processor cannot generate an appropriate endoscopic image without performing white balance adjustment of the endoscopic image. That is, the processor can generate an appropriate endoscopic image and output the endoscopic image on the monitor by obtaining various parameters for adjustment including a coefficient for white balance adjustment and the like, driving the endoscope on the basis of the parameters for adjustments and performing image processing of a received image signal.
For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 05-176886, an endoscope apparatus is proposed which enables an endoscope holding parameters for adjustment, such as various gains, as respective resistance values of variable resistors to be connected to a processor via an adapter. The processor reads the resistance value via the adapter, discriminates parameters for adjustment from the resistance value, and performs driving and image processing of each endoscope on the basis of the discriminated various parameters for adjustment.
Recently, a new type of endoscope has been also proposed which includes a rewritable nonvolatile memory which stores the various parameters for adjustment.
According to the new type of endoscope which stores the various parameters for adjustment, according to the proposal, a processor identifies the endoscope on the basis of identification information about the endoscope connected, and performs various adjustments such as white balance adjustment if the identified endoscope is an endoscope connected for the first time. The processor obtains the various parameters for adjustment then and stores the various parameters for adjustment into the nonvolatile memory of the endoscope.
In the case of using the endoscope with such a configuration in combination with the processor, the processor judges whether or not the endoscope is an endoscope which has been previously connected when the endoscope is connected. If the endoscope is an endoscope which has been previously connected, the processor reads the various parameters for adjustment from the endoscope and uses the parameters for driving an image pickup device, image processing of an image signal and the like. Thus, after performing white balance adjustment and the like once, a user is not required to perform adjustment works such as white balance adjustment each time he uses the endoscope afterwards.